The problem is even a little broader than this. Lulu is not the only experienced guardian - Auron served as Braska's guardian and got even farther, reaching Yunalesca. Auron's starting HP is 1030, which is definitely more, but he is a fighter class, so "more" is to be expected.

I would like to offer some potential explanations.

No Sphere Grid
Perhaps both previous efforts were "No Sphere Grid" runs, where the player intentionally does not increase any of the characters' attributes. It is certainly possible to make it to the Calm Lands while keeping Lulu at 380 HP.

Lulu's Broken HeartLulu is a mage and magic is fundamentally a mental ability. A spellcaster has to "have one's head in the game," so to speak. We know that Lulu is grieving over Chappu, and Tidus resembles Chappu, so she may be (at least initially) operating under significant psychological duress. (Auron is also laboring under the effects of trauma, though his is physical.)

Tidus the Rock Star
As we learn on the Mi'ihen high road, ordinary citizens of Spira are able to travel about even in the presence of fiends. But when the party is informed by the Chocobo Knight of "a large fiend" in the area, Tidus' reaction is to find it and engage it. This is a surprise to the rest of the party (except for Auron, who recalls that Jecht had a similar attitude.)
It would seem that "standard operating procedure" for summoners is to "blend in" with passing traffic, and try to avoid fiends. This strategy would result in characters earning little or no AP, which is consistent with Lulu's low starting HP.(Jecht's similar "rock star" attitude may be part of why Braska was able to make it as far as Yunalesca.)

Jecht the StalkerMost summoners have to seek out Sin once they have undergone the Final Aeon ritual. But Jecht seems to be following Tidus around. This results in several "boss" battles facing Sinspawn, and even Sin directly, which are a major source of AP for the party that would not have been present in Lulu's previous pilgrimages.

Yuna's ADHDWe run into other summoners who seem very focused on getting to their destination. But Yuna seems to have a problem focusing - getting kidnapped (twice), starting a civil war, and even getting married. So instead of following a direct path from temple to temple, the party ends up chasing her all over Spira.

Exercise: given any n not of the form 4k + 2, prove that it is possible to find two squares that are n apart.

"... with one exception."

Exercise: find the exception. Find what was wrong with your previous proof. Convince yourself the proof is now correct and there are no other exceptions.

]]>https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/matthew_van_eerde/2017/05/09/how-far-apart-can-squares-be/feed/0Collecting audio logs the old-fashioned wayhttps://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/matthew_van_eerde/2017/01/09/collecting-audio-logs-the-old-fashioned-way/
https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/matthew_van_eerde/2017/01/09/collecting-audio-logs-the-old-fashioned-way/#commentsMon, 09 Jan 2017 22:30:14 +0000https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/matthew_van_eerde/?p=2465In previous blog posts I have showed how to use the Feedback Hub to file a new problem report with logs, and to add logs to an existing problem report.

It can also be useful to gather the logs outside of the Feedback Hub environment. For example, there is a current issue in the Feedback Hub which affects builds 14996 through 15006 (it is fixed in 15007) that breaks log collection.

You will receive two yes/no questions. Answer y to the first if you can reproduce the issue. Always answer y to the second.

The script will run for several minutes and eventually create a .zip file right next to itself. The last line of the script output will refer to the .zip file, something like this:Logs are located at C:\Users\mateer\Desktop\Temp\CollectAudioLogs\MATEER-K_20170109-021827.zip

]]>https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/matthew_van_eerde/2017/01/09/collecting-audio-logs-the-old-fashioned-way/feed/1Getting larger bluescreen memory dumps on your PChttps://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/matthew_van_eerde/2017/01/03/getting-larger-bluescreen-memory-dumps-on-your-pc/
https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/matthew_van_eerde/2017/01/03/getting-larger-bluescreen-memory-dumps-on-your-pc/#respondTue, 03 Jan 2017 18:34:25 +0000https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/matthew_van_eerde/?p=2365If your PC hits a blue screen of death (or if you're an Insider, a green screen of death) then Windows will (usually) create a C:\Windows\memory.dmp file that captures the state of the machine at the time of the crash.

Sometimes this file has enough in it to determine what the cause of the crash was; sometimes not.

There is a setting you can tweak on your PC to determine how much goes into this dump file:

]]>https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/matthew_van_eerde/2017/01/03/getting-larger-bluescreen-memory-dumps-on-your-pc/feed/0Adding logs to a reported problem in Feedback Hubhttps://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/matthew_van_eerde/2016/09/30/adding-logs-to-a-reported-problem-in-feedback-hub/
https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/matthew_van_eerde/2016/09/30/adding-logs-to-a-reported-problem-in-feedback-hub/#respondFri, 30 Sep 2016 18:36:17 +0000https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/matthew_van_eerde/?p=2315Last time I talked about how to report problems (with logs) and make suggestions in the Feedback Hub. I mentioned how to add logs when reporting a problem for the first time.

You can also add logs to problems that have already been reported.

Start | Feedback Hub | Feedback | Find the problem report you want to add logs to. Note you have various filtering options.
Screenshot on the left is from a phone; screenshot on the right is from a PC

Click/tap on the specific problem report in question | Add feedback details | Choose the monitoring option that best fits the problem (or use the default for the category and subcategory) | Begin monitoring

Make the problem happen; monitoring will continue in the background. This will go into a circular buffer. It's OK if it takes a long time for the problem to happen; new data will overwrite old data.

Come back to the Feedback Hub | Stop monitoring. It's important to do this as soon as you can, once the problem has happened.

Use the Submit or Submit and upvote to send us the logs. (You will see Submit and upvote if someone else submitted the feedback originally, and you have not yet upvoted it. If you submitted the issue originally, or you have already upvoted it, you will see Submit.)

EDIT: 2016-11-01 The screenshot shows "Audio and sound" and "Media Issues". Since taking the screenshot we have removed "Audio and sound"; use "Media Issues" instead.

]]>https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/matthew_van_eerde/2016/09/30/adding-logs-to-a-reported-problem-in-feedback-hub/feed/0Report problems, with logs, and suggest features, with the Feedback Hubhttps://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/matthew_van_eerde/2016/09/26/report-problems-with-logs-and-suggest-features-with-the-feedback-hub/
https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/matthew_van_eerde/2016/09/26/report-problems-with-logs-and-suggest-features-with-the-feedback-hub/#commentsMon, 26 Sep 2016 15:58:02 +0000https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/matthew_van_eerde/?p=2225If you run into a problem with Windows 10, or if you would like to make a suggestion, you can use the Feedback Hub app. This works on both PC and phone.

Launch the Feedback Hub app. Do a search for the thing you're looking for. I used "usb" as an example. The screenshot on the left is from a phone, the screenshot on the right is from a PC.

You can filter the category and subcategory down to make searching simpler. Note in the screenshot I have filtered down to Category: Hardware, Devices, and Drivers and Subcategory: Audio and sound.

If you see your problem or suggestion listed already, use Upvote to reinforce it, and you're done!

If it isn't there, congratulations - you are a pioneer! Use + Add new feedback

You can select whether this is a problem or a suggestion. Give a quick summary in the title and more detail in the description. You can also attach screenshots or other files.

If you are reporting a problem, it is very helpful for developers to have logs of the problem as it is happening.

Use Begin monitoring to start the log collection. Begin monitoring will change to Stop monitoring.

Make the problem happen.

As soon as possible after the problem has happened, come back to the Feedback Hub and Stop monitoring. A "System monitoring file" will be attached to the feedback.

Submit

If you want to share a direct link to the feedback you filed, you can use the Copy link feature.

But how do you find it again?

Well, you could search for it. But there's a trick to make it easier. You can limit search results to feedback you have filed by applying a Filter: My feedback filter. Use Sort: Most recent to get your most recently filed feedback at the top.

]]>https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/matthew_van_eerde/2016/09/19/media-experience-analyzer-now-available-in-the-assessment-and-deployment-kit-adk/feed/0Installing the Microsoft class driver(s) for USB Audio deviceshttps://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/matthew_van_eerde/2016/09/15/installing-the-microsoft-class-drivers-for-usb-audio-devices/
https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/matthew_van_eerde/2016/09/15/installing-the-microsoft-class-drivers-for-usb-audio-devices/#commentsThu, 15 Sep 2016 19:50:33 +0000https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/matthew_van_eerde/?p=2005Back in 2010 I wrote about how to install the Microsoft class drivers on audio hardware that was built to the Intel High Definition Audio specification.

It is also possible to install a Microsoft class driver on audio hardware that was built to the USB Audio specification. Pretty much all versions of Windows have a class driver that supports the USB Audio 1.0 spec; builds 14912 and later (which are only available to Insiders right now) also support the USB Audio 2.0 spec, with some caveats.

The steps for PC are the same as in the linked post, but the name of the driver will either be "USB Audio Device" (if the hardware is built to the USB Audio 1.0 spec) or "USB Audio 2.0" (if the hardware is built to the USB Audio 2.0 spec.)

Start | Device Manager

Expand Sound, video, and game controllers

Right-click the device in question and choose Update driver

Choose Manually install a driver

Choose Let me pick from a list of available drivers on my computer

If you have the manufacturer's driver installed, that will be in the list

If you see USB Audio Device in the list, that is the Microsoft class driver for USB Audio 1.0 hardware

If you see USB Audio 2.0 in the list, that is the Microsoft class driver for USB Audio 2.0 hardware (as shown in the screenshot)

Pick the driver you want from the list and choose Next; it will install

If the device was in use at the time, you may be prompted to restart; if so, the old driver will still be in effect until you restart

You can repeat the steps at any time, for example if you want to put the manufacturer's driver back

The USB audio class drivers also work on Windows Phone. To use them:

Verify you have a phone that supports "USB host mode"
For example, from the Lumia 950 specs

Plug in the USB audio device to the phone

That's it!

]]>https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/matthew_van_eerde/2016/09/15/installing-the-microsoft-class-drivers-for-usb-audio-devices/feed/108Cyrus Smith lays a sick burn on Captain Nemo in Jules Verne’s “The Mysterious Island”https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/matthew_van_eerde/2016/07/07/1995/
https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/matthew_van_eerde/2016/07/07/1995/#commentsThu, 07 Jul 2016 21:04:43 +0000https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/matthew_van_eerde/?p=1995I've been reading Jules Verne's L'île mystérieuse (The Mysterious Island.) It's about a bunch of Civil War prisoners who escape in a balloon, find themselves marooned on a desert island, and by a slow application of engineering principles build up food, shelter, defense, and eventually a working telegraph system.

Oh, and it has Captain Nemo.

Near the end, the engineer Cyrus Smith and Captain Nemo have a face-to-face where Nemo spills his guts about why he removed himself from society. Cyrus then lays a pretty sick burn on him, which I think cuts to the heart of engineering philosophy, so I'm quoting it here.

"Captain, your mistake was to believe you could bring back the past. You struggled against progress, which is a good and necessary thing. This is an error that some admire and others condemn, but God alone can judge of its virtue, and human reason can only pardon it. A man who errs through what he believes to be good intentions may well be denounced, but he will always be esteemed. Some may find much to praise in your error, and your name has nothing to fear from the judgment of history. History loves heroic follies, even as it condemns their consequences."

]]>https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/matthew_van_eerde/2016/07/07/1995/feed/1How to record a phone call on a Windows 10 phonehttps://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/matthew_van_eerde/2016/05/12/how-to-record-a-phone-call-on-a-windows-10-phone/
https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/matthew_van_eerde/2016/05/12/how-to-record-a-phone-call-on-a-windows-10-phone/#commentsThu, 12 May 2016 17:42:50 +0000https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/matthew_van_eerde/?p=1935First, check the specifications for your phone to see if it has the necessary hardware to support call recording - not all phones do.